World Zionist Congress Elections

Recently on a Shabbos, Marc Jacob was our guest speaker at Kiddish, to inform us about the World Zionist Congresselections that are going on now through Shushan Purim (March 11th), and which only take place every five years. Attached is an article explaining more about the elections.

The OU is encouraging everyone to vote in these elections. The results will influence:

$5 Billion in funding over the next 5 years (both in and outside of Israel);

What secular Israel school children are taught about traditional Judaism;

Halachic standards for various issues; and

Who fills the Board positions of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the JNF.

Mr. Jacob is a delate to the World Zionist Congress for the Eretz Hakodesh slate. In his talk he mentioned three slates in particular that he thought would be of interest to our congregation:

This is not necessarily to the exclusion of other slates, but these the ones he felt informed enough about to discuss.
The Shul is not endorsing any particular slate, but we are conveying the message of the OU, of which we are a part, that it is important to vote.

Attached is the fact sheet which tells you how to vote via email or by phone, and the requirements to qualify to vote.
You can also use this link:

The cost is $7.50 per person ($5 if under 25, & Free if you registered previously), and your adult children who did not vote in the most recent Israeli elections are also eligible to vote. (If you have an AOL or Yahoo email account, Mr. Jacob suggests you have the PIN numbers sent to you via SMS text message rather than email, to avoid voting problems).

Once you have voted, please send your voting confirmation page into NHBZ member, Mindy Woolf at mwoolf2002@gmail.com who is keeping track, along with what slate you voted for (if you care to share that).